The University of Louisiana at Lafayette deployed its emergency response system for the first time today and administrators are pleased with the outcome.
The First Call system was activated following the armed robbery of a bank near campus.
“ We needed to alert the campus community about a possible threat as a result of this armed robbery,” said UL Lafayette Police Chief Ray Lucas. “We wanted to ensure the safety of all students, faculty and staff on campus.”
Alerts were sent out via text messaging along with two phone calls to all campus lines and all cell phones registered with First Call. An initial message was sent to phones following the incident and a second message was distributed after the suspect had been arrested.
An alert message was also recorded on the campus hotline and the university’s homepage changed to a text-only site that replaced the usual homepage.
“ The alerts were successful,” said Lucas. “The system performed as it was designed to perform.”
Students who have not signed up for First Call are encouraged to do so free of charge. Each student has the opportunity to provide additional email addresses and phone numbers. For instance, a student may choose to include their parents’ home phone number as an additional contact number.
UL Lafayette students and employees can register their contact information online at http://ens.louisiana.edu.
“ We’ve put this system in place to notify the campus community in times of emergency and we are pleased it worked so well today,”said UL Lafayette President Dr. E. Joseph Savoie. “The safety of our students, faculty and staff remains a top priority for this university.”
The First Call service is part of an initiative by the Louisiana Board of Regents and supported by the University of Louisiana System.